Strengthening programme-based budget management in Burkina Faso
Project description
Title: Strengthening Good Financial Governance in Burkina Faso
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Burkina Faso
Lead executing agency: Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et du Développement (Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Development – MINEFID)
Overall term: 2018 to 2021
Context
In January 2017, Burkina Faso introduced programme-based budgeting, in line with the directives for public finance laid down by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) in 2009. The switch to results-oriented budgeting now provides a framework for further improving qualitative and quantitative budget planning. These improvements include transferring decisions on expenditure from the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Development (MINEFID) to the sectoral ministries, and taking account of major development constraints that affect all departments and ministries, such as gender and children’s rights. Since May 2018, the sectoral ministries have increasingly incorporated alignment with gender issues and children’s rights in their budgeting.
However, the corresponding public finance sub-systems continue to present challenges. For sectoral ministries to be able to coordinate the planning of funds effectively, they need better planning data on the funding and effectiveness of existing programmes. This will require improvements in data availability and analysis. Budget implementation often also fails because approved funding is unavailable; better liquidity management is therefore also needed. In addition, external financial control institutions are not yet in a position to conduct an effective audit of the budget in the new programme format. Furthermore, key efficiency and transparency criteria for budget management are not yet in place.
Objective
Public finance management in Burkina Faso has improved with regard to budgeting principles, budget implementation and external control mechanisms.
Approach
The project supports the Government of Burkina Faso in mainstreaming the budget reform in its financial institutions. It is aligned with the national reform strategy in the field of public finance, which has the overarching objective of budget management based on transparency, efficiency and compliance with regulations. The project promotes expertise and management skills and encourages mutually reinforcing cooperation between all stakeholders in the budget reform. In addition to the development and transfer of technical expertise, building confidence in the reform also plays a crucial role.
The reform process also necessitates adjustments in working procedures, organisational structures and institutional culture. The project provides advice to MINEFID in this area and offers initial and ongoing training to enable ownership and ensure the reform takes lasting hold in the administrative structures.
The project fosters regional networking and cooperation between the WAEMU member states. In this way, it contributes to dialogue and shared learning in the field of public finance.
Civil society also has an important role in implementation. Awareness-raising and educational measures for stakeholders from non-governmental organisations ensure that the newly introduced transparency mechanisms are understood.
In addition, the project uses the programme-based budget structure to improve the living conditions of women and children. Since May 2018, the sectoral ministries have gradually been introducing budget management that is sensitive to gender and children’s rights. The sectoral ministries must now state the impacts on these groups in all their programmes and integrate them into their performance objectives.